City contributes $50,000 to statewide study to research and develop plan for potable reuse of reclaimed water

City leaders want to know more about the potential for potable use of reclaimed water and the possibility of treating wastewater to go back into Lubbock faucets.

The City Council late Monday committed $50,000 as a contribution to an about $625,000 statewide study through the Texas Water Development Board to conduct research and develop a plan for potable reuse of reclaimed water.

The study will look at the technological and logistical needs to treat wastewater for human consumption, as well as necessary steps to make the process palatable in the public perception — a point Mayor Glen Robertson and a spokesman for the Texas Water Development Board said poses a challenge.

“It’s one of those things we have to do,” Robertson said. “It’s not in the near future, but it is something we have to start planning for.”

Jorge Arroyo, director of innovative water technology with the Texas Water Development Board, said lingering drought, growing population and dwindling water supplies across the state are making more cities consider using reclaimed water as a conservation tool.

“We know that we’re going to have to reuse the water and we’re going to have to be more efficient,” he said.

Arroyo said such cities as San Antonio and El Paso have long-established water reclamation systems for non-potable use.

In El Paso, the city’s water utilities department has provided reclaimed water for such purposes as water parks, street sweeping and industrial applications since 1963, according to city officials.

Arroyo said El Paso also pumps reclaimed water into the Hueco Bolson aquifer.

Robertson said he does not anticipate Lubbock will implement potable use of reclaimed water for at least 30 years partially because of its access to such sources as Lake Alan Henry and well fields in Bailey and Roberts County.

“It’s not going to be in my lifetime,” he said. “But I think it’s going to be such a normal fact of life that we won’t even think twice about it.”

The technology is already there or in development.

“Consensus among experts is that potable reuse of reclaimed water is a viable and safe water management strategy if implemented with sufficient barriers, monitoring protocols and operational controls,” a copy of the contract resolution states.

The agreement approved by the City Council tasks the study to Alan Plummer & Associates’ environmental engineering firm with offices in Dallas, Fort Worth and Austin. Spokespersons for the firm did not return Avalanche-Journal phone messages Tuesday.

Research and a plan will be conducted and developed in a two-year period, according to the contract.

Lubbock’s Water Advisory Commission already identifies reclaimed water as a potential source for Lubbock’s water supply, along with groundwater and surface water, as part of its still-pending 2012 Strategic Water Supply Plan set for council approval in February.

Treating city wastewater for reuse in the taps could reclaim up to 9 million gallons to supplement Lubbock’s 40 million gallons used each day, city water officials and members of the Lubbock Water Advisory Commission said.

Options include processing wastewater through a potential new water treatment plant in the city or letting nature clean up the supply by reclaiming water after it passes through nearby tributaries of the Brazos River.

Jim Collins, chairman of the commission, said in a September meeting the idea of drinking retreated wastewater could be a tough sell for some.

“But if you live downriver from anybody, you’re already using reused water,” he said.

The still-in-progress draft of the strategic water supply plan estimates it could cost about $54.2 million to install 12 miles of pipeline and a pump station, upgrade current water treatment plants and cover the legal, engineering and planning costs to harvest treated wastewater from the north fork of the Brazos River.

That plan would use a still-pending Texas Commission on Environmental Quality permit allowing the city to retrieve treated wastewater from the Brazos in southeast Lubbock County.

For years, the city has had TCEQ permission to pump 9 million gallons of stream-quality treated wastewater into the north fork.

The plan to retrieve the stream-quality water from the north fork would provide the city about 9 million gallons of water per day at an annual cost of $2.11 per 1,000 gallons and with minimal loss from water evaporating or soaking into the ground.

The water would be treated by reverse osmosis before passing through Lubbock’s recently opened South Water Treatment Plant that also treats water pumped from Lake Alan Henry.

A ceremony in August marked the first water pumped to Lubbock from the lake by a 50-mile pipeline.

Another plan skips the outdoor middleman by sending treated wastewater via 7.5 miles of pipe from the city’s Southeast Water Reclamation Plant for a final cleaning at the South Water Treatment Plant.

Both plants would receive upgrades to treat the water and raise it to drinking quality which, along with pipeline, planning and estimated engineering expenses carries a projected cost of about $94.6 million.

That plan would also produce about 9 million gallons of water per day at a cost $3.71 per 1,000 gallons.

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